What online services do you use?

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MobileMe

Google Apps for just about everything, plus Dropbox and Flickr.

iCloud
Dropbox
Cloudapp
Zoho invoice
Picasa
Google apps for business
Netflix
Hulu
Amazon S3

Probably forgetting a couple others.

the main ones are:

iCloud
Dropbox
Gmail
Box.net

Gmail
SkyDrive
DropBox

I'm not entirely sure where we draw the line. Does Facebook count as a service?

ugahairydawgs said:

I was thinking more along the lines of mail, contacts, and calendars. Wondering how people make the decisions of which services they use. I am trying to figure which one I want to use long term, going back and forth between Google and iCloud.

Like a lot of the services that Google offers, but it doesn't fully sync right with iOS and then there are the issues with privacy that inherently come up with a company that uses your information for targeted advertising. With the Google net being so wide these days and their new privacy policy that goes into effect in a couple of weeks it causes a little more concern than it used to.

iCloud, on the other hand, is a lot less feature rich. The spam filters in mail are nowhere near as good as Gmail and the fact that they don't push any message updates outside of new mail is just odd (read updates, deleted messages, etc). That said....the plays nicer if you have multiple Apple devices.

Just wonder what factors others take into account when deciding which services to use.

Click to expand...

Ah I see. I'd recommend Google services, simply because they are the most versatile if you ever do decide to change platform.

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GMail
Google Sync (Calendar/Contacts/Bookmarks etc)


Syncing across Android/iOS and WP7 for me. I couldn't use iCloud if I wanted to because of its compatibility with other platforms.

I didn't realize you were talking about mail either. While I do use Gmail I'm exploring alternatives like paid Yahoo, Office 365 and Zoho.

I've begun to distrust Google and the fact that there is absolutely zero support is a factor in my decision process.

I'm also considering iCloud for all personal accounts.

iCloud
Dropbox

for me, I guess I'm not plugged that much into the cloud

rocknblogger said:

I didn't realize you were talking about mail either. While I do use Gmail I'm exploring alternatives like paid Yahoo, Office 365 and Zoho.

I've begun to distrust Google and the fact that there is absolutely zero support is a factor in my decision process.

I'm also considering iCloud for all personal accounts.

Click to expand...

Host your own email?

MorphingDragon said:

Host your own email?

Click to expand...

Yes I do. Up to now I preferred to route through Google due to available Gmail options. It's also easier to manage. I had. Free 30 day trial of Office 365 and it looks promising but not sure yet. I have to give Zoho a good trial.

Zoho also offers personal inboxes @zoho which is a plus.

MobileMe / iCloud
GMail
Live.com
Own domains with web space and IMAP

Those mail alternatives give me the chance to seperate serious mails from less serious mails; I even started to give each service I use an own email address (forward into main account)

Others:
smugmug
hulu
Facebook
twitter

VPN server into home network

And of course: MacRumors

Google
iCloud
Gmail - for mail and Notes.

I agree with above poster that although I like their services, if you have any problems, getting support (just getting through to them) is damn near impossible. But, to be fair, problems have been very few and far between.

Dropbox

Google Voice, Dropbox and Amazon Cloud Drive

gmail, DropBox, Mozy, Amazon Cloud Services.

Dropsend
Yahoo Mail
Gmail
YouTube
Soundcloud
Facebook
...to name a few

-ExchangeMyMail (hosted Outlook Exchange for my own email domain; I started using them in my Blackberry days and continue to use them for email, contact, calendar sync).
-Flickr (still technically have an account but do not use it these days; was just thinking about whether I should return to it yesterday actually.)
-Am considering Dropbox again, especially for accessing files on the days I do not want to bring my laptop to work but can access stuff to print from our (crappy) work computers.
-Gmail

I THINK that's about it in terms of services... I'm sure something else will come to me later though. lol.

I figured it could be fun to wake this thread again...

Myself, after having used a whole armada of file sync services side by side, I finally ended up choosing Dropbox as my main one. It syncs quickly, it uses very little resources, it's supported on all platforms I use and would be interested in using, no file size limitations, and the free storage they offer (I'm currently at 14,5 GB for free) suits my needs. There are some great ones out there though that I would switch to in a heartbeat should I for some reason want to leave Dropbox (namely Box.com, Cubby, SugarSync).

For calendar, notes, reminders and contacts, I use iCloud. It has worked pretty much without a hitch since the first day I tried it (launch day) and I simply see no point in switching.

Having been forced into switching e-mails more times than I can remember since the mid-90's, I got my own domain a while back to secure an easy address that I won't ever have to change, and I currently use zoho.com for hosting my mail. Their free account offers the two most important things for me: Exchange Active Sync (for iOS) and IMAP (for desktop).

Gmail but only for junk email and stuff I don't care about.
Flickr to share pictures (mostly with the POTD thread on here)
I store my own data, because that way I know where it is.